Goal for the day: 6-8 miles from Walker Pass

Once I decided I wanted to do the entire PCT section G (115 miles) this year, I had to wait for Mt Whitney’s snow cover to get to the point I’d be able to climb up it and exit via the Whitney Portal. Technically, I could finish section G at Crabtree Meadows and exit back at Cottonwood Pass or Shepherd Pass, but both would add a lot of extra mileage.

To do the entire section G, I’d have to start at Walker Pass at Highway 178 and head north. The main problem with this is that the first on-trail water is 12 miles from Walker Pass. This is where the Mojave Desert starts to turn into the southern hills and mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. So, I’d have to start with a lot of water and be careful about my water usage.

I had planned to have a shuttle drop me off early at Walker Pass. There wasn’t any real off-highway parking at this trailhead, so didn’t feel comfortable leaving my Jeep there for the 2+ weeks it would take to do the entire section. Unfortunately, the shuttle service I choose turned out to be unreliable and they were trying to get me to share with a group that hiked the High Sierra Trail and had to head to the other side of the Sierra Nevadas. It would have been a very late arrival at Walker Pass, but before I could bail out of the shuttle the other group shifted their pickup time to be much earlier.

The next day I waited for my pickup in Lone Pine, and waited, and waited. When the driver finally got there, he told me the other party had added an extra passenger and the vehicle he had was too small. So, I had to wait for him to get a bigger van and then pickup the other group (now 3 people).

I was frustrated with all this and didn’t get on the trail until 10:30am. Unfortunately, it was a nice day.

Why unfortunately? No clouds and nice bright sun beaming right down on me. The first 2 miles of this trail had very little shade (unless you stopped under a rock outcropping or one of the few trees along the way), so it was a very hot start to the hike. A mile into the hike I grew worried at how much water I was sucking into my mouth and started to be more careful. By 1.5 miles, I did a check of my Camelbak and discovered that it was LEAKING!

Panicking, I stopped any further loss of water with some duct tape and transferred as much water into my emergency water container as possible.

But the damage was done. I ended up with just a little over a liter of water left, plus half of my 20oz Gatorade bottle. I was somewhat near the first horizontal ridge by that point, so I decided to at least continue to one of the campsites identified in my PCT data. I decided to just have granola for dinner since I didn’t need much water for it.

I still had over 9 miles to the first water source, so doubted I could continue the next day, but held out hope for a water fairy (AKA a hiker to be heading southbound that could spare me some extra water).

Unfortunately, no miracles occurred and I had to break camp and head back to the Walker Pass trailhead. The sunset and sunrise did give me a little color as a runner up prize, but that didn’t lift my spirits any.

In retrospect, I should just driven my Jeep and parked it at the trailhead instead of relying on the shuttle. I also should have either started later in the day or even pre-dawn to get the first part of the hike done before the mid-day heat blasted me.

I also should have taken more water than the 3 liters I had. At least 5 liters probably. That would have weighed significantly more, but it was what was needed. I have to work on lowering the weight of my pack more. I’m no where near the pack weight thru hikers manage to survive with.

Or, I should have just done the first half of section G from Walker Pass to Kennedy Meadows in early July instead of waiting for the conditions on the northern part improve. But my focus was on doing the entire section all at once, so I lost track of the finer details.

After I managed to get a DIFFERENT shuttle driver to get me back to my Jeep in Lone Pine, I decided I should try to restart the hike starting at Kennedy Meadows after enjoying a hotel and real food.

Total miles hiked: 5
Miles hiked one-way on PCT section G: 2.5

Goal: Failed 🙁